Chaos
by Jamie Scarlett
Summary: Chaos. Morganville in a single word. Myrnin can be chaos personified, but Claire doesn't care; she wouldn't love him any other way. First part of chapter 3 now up. ON HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first attempt at a Morganville fic, something I'd hoped to have happened in _Black Dawn _but it didn't. Don't know when in the series it falls into but there are no draug in this one. **

**This'll most likely be a twoshot, maybe a threeshot if my inspiration holds out that long :)  
**

**Anyway, hope you like it.  
**

**Jamie Scarlett xx**

**Big thank you to (and dedicated to) the wonderful vicky199416 for betaing this - you're awesome :D  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Morganville Vampires; if I did, Myrnin and Claire would definitely be canon :)  
**

* * *

To an outsider, Morganville, Texas seemed like any other town: to the oblivious students, it seemed sort of like a kind of organised chaos, but for the residents of this not-so-ordinary town, there was nothing organised about it whatsoever.

Chaos.

Morganville summed up in a single word.

Though today, Claire Danvers thought as she made her way to the gates of Texas Prairie University, not much had happened. Not unless you counted an argument with your jealous boyfriend about your crazy boss as not much – then again, she thought, that _was_ nothing, particularly in Morganville. The only time that domestics were something to be bothered about, in this creepy town, was when they involved a human and a vampire.

But, back to the point; once again, Shane had accused her of sleeping with Myrnin, her vampire boss, behind his back, and had refused to believe her when she said there was nothing between them. No matter _what_ she said, he insisted that she was lying to him, and he wouldn't take her word to mean anything. Little did he know she'd been lying to herself. But then, she didn't really know that either.

Claire walked into Common Grounds and went over to the counter, where the other Glass House girl was in the process of making a cappuccino. Catching Eve's eye, Claire grinned as the other girl began to assemble Claire's customary mocha, not even needing to hear the words "Can I have a mocha?" to start making it.

"5 minutes and I'll join you, 'kay?" Eve said through magenta-coloured lips that barely seemed to move as she spoke. Claire didn't say anything in response, simply nodded as she took her coffee from Eve and smiled in the way that friends do – the smile that meant that she didn't have to speak to show that she was happy to see her.

Mocha in hand, Claire found an empty table and sat down, dumping her heavy rucksack at her feet. Blowing on her drink to cool it, she took small sips as her mind drifted back to earlier that morning, and the absolute shambles that it had been.

Three of the four of them had woken up in similarly foul moods: Shane's mood was most likely caused by having to work a late shift and consequentially getting no sleep; Claire realised her mood was also due to lack of sleep and too much work - she and Myrnin had spent several hours on their experiments last night, with the result being that she didn't get home until after midnight (not something that was good when she was already suffering from sleep deprivation); Eve, who, by definition, was not a morning person anyway, was usually roused from her mood by several cups of coffee - this morning though, even with coffee in her system, she was snarky, and that was before the reason for her particularly evil mood came slowly down the stairs.

Michael had yawned, stretching with the catlike grace all vampires had, even the ones like Oliver who tried to hide it. He'd smiled at the three of them, not noticing the look Shane and Eve gave his turned back once he was out of sight. It had failed to escape Claire's notice, however.

"Any reason why you both practically staked Michael with your eyes?" She had asked, eyebrows raised.

"Because he locked me in my room. And messed with my head even though he knows damn well I hate it. I'm not a kid, Michael! I can look after myself!" As she'd spoken, Eve's voice rose in pitch and volume, until she was shouting the last part.

Claire had expected Michael to come in and defend himself, but he didn't; the slamming of a door somewhere in the house told her more than anything else that he knew he was in the wrong.

For some reason, this made Eve a little happier, and she took off upstairs to get dressed, yelling something about Oliver and being late as she went – it was back to the usual routine. This had left Shane and Claire alone at the table; Claire had offered Shane a piece of her toast with a tentative grin, since he hadn't seemed in the best of moods with Michael. Whilst she had expected the usual banter about food and her lathering toast with butter; instead, Shane had snapped at her, completely out of the blue.

"Feeling guilty 'bout something?" he almost snarled, a hard edge to his voice, something which made no sense. Claire was confused; what did he think she'd done now? He'd seen that she was puzzled and didn't hesitate to clarify, and he seemed even more convinced than usual: probably something to do with her late night, she thought.

"Don't deny it, Claire, I've seen the way he looks at you." Something in his voice made her flinch backwards, and she noticed how his face was completely blank – he wasn't bothered, he didn't care that he might be hurting her.

Realisation dawned then, and hurt flashed across her face. Myrnin. He was accusing her of sleeping with Myrnin. _Again._ The hurt expression faded from her face, and anger took its place, because this wasn't the first time.

"For the last time, Shane, there is _nothing_ going on between us. He. Is. My. Boss. I don't get _why_ I have to keep explaining this to you when I've told you about a thousand times." She seethed, snatching her empty plate from the table and stalking into the kitchen.

She was so busy concentrating on getting the plate into the sink without smashing it to pieces that she didn't hear Shane follow her until his big hand closed around her much smaller wrist.

"Tell me the truth, Claire. You owe me that much."

Claire had finally had enough. "Truth about what? I'm not having an affair with Myrnin, we're just... friends." she sighed, not entirely convinced about that. But she didn't think that at the time; only looking back, did she realise that she hadn't exactly shown a stellar performance in proving her innocence.

Shane snorted and rolled his eyes. "Friends. Right. Pull the other one, Claire."

"You're such an _ass_, Shane!" she snapped, pulling her wrist from his vice-like grip with all her strength and glaring at him, remembering how effective Amelie's periods of icy silence could be. Hell, she'd been subjected to enough of them; it was time for Shane to get the power of the glare.

"If I'm such an ass, why are you still here?" Claire was fairly sure he meant 'with me' and that the words were hanging on the end, merely unspoken.

"Maybe I don't want to be." She'd said, hoping he'd think the tremors in her voice were due to anger and nothing else; she wasn't so sure. She swallowed. "I want out."

It's funny how three little words can change your life instantly, Claire mused, be they the 'I love you' girls dream of or the 'I want you' of many a teenage fantasy.

Shane returned her glare, as though he really couldn't be bothered with this anymore. "Fine, if that's what you want."

He turned away from her and walked out of the kitchen _without another word__,_ leaving Claire a little shocked about how quickly this had all happened. Five minutes before, she had had a boyfriend and been discussing the weather; now, she had dumped Shane, he hadn't protested, and she felt like destroying every breakable thing in the house.

Brought back to her current location by a particularly obnoxious group of students, Claire sighed. She'd expected Shane to at least argue with her, fight her about it, not to walk away like nothing had happened. But he had. And there was nothing she could do to change it.

The chair opposite her was pulled back with a small scrape and Eve flopped into it.

"What's up, CB?" she said with a grin. Claire arched an eyebrow, wondering if she needed to explain.

"The usual."

"Shane being a jerk again?" Eve guessed, hitting the nail right on the head.

Claire took a sip from her now almost empty cup and didn't answer.

Eve sighed, lips parted. She was wearing pink today, or as Eve liked to call it, Ironic Pink: pink shirt with poison skull and bones logo. Matching pink pedal-pushers with skulls embossed at the hems. Little pink skull hair ties on her pigtails, which stood out from her head almost daring someone to mock them.

"What'd he do this time?"

"The same as always. Accused me of sneaking around with Myrnin; like I said, the usual."

Eve's pigtails bounced as she shook her head. "Ass."

Claire laughed. "That's what I said."

Eve paused. "To his face?"

"Yeah."

"He had it coming." Eve said, shrugging and holding her hand out in a high five. Claire gave her a funny look, but held her hand all the same, slapping Eve's back with enough force for Eve to be impressed.

"So what happened?"

Claire sighed, and mumbled the truth.

"Didn't catch that, CB."

"I broke up with him."

"You..." Eve was interrupted.

"I'm not paying you to socialise, Eve." _Oliver_. Who else? Eve flipped him off, but got up and walked back towards the counter, realising that there wasn't any pushing it with him at the minute.

"Sorry, Claire Bear. We'll talk later, 'kay?" Eve said as she walked away, giving Claire a wink as she did so.

Oliver looked over at Claire from just over the counter, his face showing neither pleasure nor displeasure at seeing her. Neutrality. It was something she wished she had all over the place. "Myrnin wants you to bring coffee for him." He held out a cup to her, and she noticed how his face contorted at the mention of Myrnin's name.

Claire rolled her eyes and took it from him without a word, knowing that she could get away with lack of manners with Oliver. Myrnin and his caffeine addiction.

"I'm guessing he wants me there now." Claire got up as she spoke, juggling her bag and Myrnin's coffee, trying not to drop either of them. That wouldn't be the best idea, to drop the crazy vampire's coffee, after all.

Eve smiled at her on the way out, motioning their usual 'see you later' hand gesture, and Claire set off for Myrnin's lab, thankful for the sunlight overhead.

Granma Day was sitting on the porch swing, lemonade in hand, as Claire went by.

"Visiting the trapdoor spider's lair?" She asked. Trapdoor spider was her name for Myrnin. Claire had to admit, it fitted perfectly.

"Yes ma'am." The ma'am was almost automatic.

"You be careful now."

"I will, ma'am. You know I always am."

Granma Day didn't reply, merely took another sip of her drink and watched Claire until she reached the corner of her house, and disappeared down the alleyway. Even then, Claire thought that her eyes were still on her.

Claire headed down the funnel like alley that led to Myrnin's lab; the sun was hiding behind a few wispy clouds today, but it was still attempting to shine brightly. The sun was a problem for most of the vampires, given their…_condition_, but for the older ones like Amelie and Myrnin, it was merely irritating. Apparently, Myrnin was willing to risk said irritation as he darted out from his position by the door to the shack for his caffeine, snatching the coffee from Claire's hand and returning to his previous position before she could blink.

"Come, child, we don't have all day." Claire rolled her eyes and pushed past him, descending the stairs into the lab. If she could be bothered, she'd make some smart-ass comment about him being rude, but there was a time and mood for that, neither of which fitted the situation then.

She paused at the bottom of the steps as she saw that the lab was in pretty much the same state they had left it yesterday. Evidently, he hadn't been houseproud overnight.

As if he could see what she was thinking, Myrnin said "You helped make the mess, you can help clear it up."

"Isn't there anything more... useful I could be doing?" She asked, somewhat hopeful. Cleaning bored her to death, and she wasn't afraid to admit it.

"You could always feed Bob." Feed Bob the spider, or clean the lab? Hard decision.

"I'll pass."

"Excellent."

"Where d'you want me to start?"

"If you could put the books back on the shelves, that would be most helpful." He gestured to two piles of what she assumed now to be books, covered by white sheets, to her right.

"Okay." Claire dropped her bag by the door and tugged one of the sheets off, and let out her approximation of a whistle as she saw underneath. "That's a lot of books."

Under the sheet, there were _two_ stacks of books, with at least one hundred in each stack. Not many books _at all_. Claire could hear Myrnin doing something else across the room, and she wasn't in the mood to inquire what, so she picked up the first book on the pile and placed it on the shelf, preparing herself for the monotony of the task.

* * *

She was about halfway through the first stack when Myrnin cleared his throat. Book in hand, Claire turned to look at him, frowning slightly.

"Am I supposed to be arranging these?" She asked as he stared past her at the shelf.

"No, no. Just randomly will do." He didn't seem very sure as he replied, but he didn't continue, so she shrugged.

"Okay..." Her eye caught on the title of the book in her hand. "Pride and Prejudice... Huh. I didn't know you liked Jane Austen, Myrnin." Something about _Myrnin_ owning a romance novel amused Claire, particularly as it was one that promoted feminism.

He nodded feverishly. "Wonderful young lady. So... passionate about her craft."

It took a second for his words to sink in. "You _knew_ Jane Austen?"

"Of course I did." He spoke as though it was obvious that he knew someone from the eighteen hundreds, and Claire couldn't help but marvel at the blasé nature he had. But then she _had_ to continue.

"Did you know any other 19th century authors?"

"No, just Miss Austen." A disappointment, then. Claire had half hoped for Charles Dickens, but she guessed she couldn't have everything.

"Oh." Claire placed Pride and Prejudice up onto the bookshelf with the rest. Randomly as he had requested, after all; who cared if Pride and Prejudice was next to a book about how to kill leech infested dogs?

* * *

"So how is dear Sean?" Myrnin asked as she started on the second stack and the third bookcase. He was just standing there now, watching her, and he made no attempt to help her with her task; after all, as he reminded her, he _did_ pay _her_.

Claire rolled her eyes. "Shane." _Not that that particularly matters anymore._

"That's what I said."

"He's fine, I guess."

"So you didn't break up with him this morning?" He asked, feigning innocence.

Claire stared at him, her eyes wide as she processed what he said. "I-what? How did you..."

"I heard you through the portal." He shrugged as if this was nothing to be concerned about. Which, to him, it wasn't; Claire thought that he had had a lot of experience of prying in his life, especially since he had managed to hack into the police _and_ fire radio lines.

"You heard that?" She couldn't help but be shocked; who knew they had been arguing _that_ loudly?

He looked over at her, slightly sympathetic. "Even Morley over in Blacke would have been able to hear that. You are okay, I hope? I need my assistant on top form, after all."

Typical Myrnin, Claire thought. He lulls you into thinking he's being nice then ends like that, concerned only about the job.

She smiled in a reassuring kind of way. "I'm fine, Myrnin. And... Done."

Claire stepped away from the now full bookcases and walked towards the table where Myrnin was working – or, probably, pretending to.

He was fiddling with the zoom dial on the microscope in front of him, apparently having little luck, as he kept pushing his hand through his dark hair. He growled in frustration and slapped his palms down either side of the microscope. The resulting vibration was enough to send a couple of vials of liquid (thankfully sealed) toppling over the side of the table.

Claire and Myrnin both moved to catch them before they made contact with the hardwood floor. Neither had noticed that the other had moved – something shocking, when one of them was a vampire - so it came a surprise to them both when they found their faces only inches apart.

Claire froze, one of the vials clutched safely in her right hand. Myrnin's gaze flickered over Claire's face, before coming back up and looking her right in the eyes, brown on brown. He smiled at her, and she suddenly found herself with an almost overwhelming urge to kiss him. _What? _She couldn't help but think.

Shocked at her own thoughts, Claire jerked upright and placed the vial back onto the table, as though nothing had even happened. But it had. Oh, how it had.

"Claire? What's wrong?" He sounded frantic as he tried to understand what was wrong with her.

"Nothing. I-I need to go home now, Myrnin. I told Eve I'd be back by this afternoon." She lied, hoping Myrnin couldn't hear the shaky edge to her voice, as she grabbed her bag from its spot by the door. "Can you open a portal to the Glass House?"

"Of course."

He walked over to the padlocked door and threw it open. Through it, Claire could see the back of the sofa and a head of blonde hair: Michael.

Just as she was about to leave, Myrnin spoke. "Same time tomorrow, little Claire," he smiled as he finished talking, and bowed slightly as she walked through the portal. Myrnin the jester was back, Claire thought.

The portal closed behind her, and Claire, wanting to avoid a confrontation or any questions from Michael, headed straight up to her room after a brief hello.

She kicked off her shoes and perched on the edge of her bed, her mind whirling as it attempted to make sense of her jumbled thoughts: thoughts of Myrnin, thoughts of Shane, of her friends, her parents – everyone who meant anything to her was featured.

Okay, so Shane was being an obnoxious jerk. As her subconscious reminded her, that was nothing new. And she'd loved him for it, a long time ago, she remembered. But he had been her first _everything_; first boyfriend, first love, first kiss...

He'd fought for her when she needed him to, and even when she didn't. She loved him, she knew that, but it was changing. From 'love' love to... She didn't know what. And that was the complicated thing.

And then there was Myrnin. Crazy, _brilliant _Myrnin. She'd saved him from the disease; he'd brought her back from the dead, destroying the Glass House's spirit to do so. He'd weakened the entire _town_ to do it. _And _she'd seen the look on his face when he first came to the Glass House after finding out she'd been killed - that had been real, genuine grief in his expression. Claire knew he cared about her, and there was a little voice in the back of her mind screaming that she cared about him too, far more than she should.

What was she going to do?

* * *

**Don't forget to review x**


	2. Chapter 2

**Yay, second chapter! Sorry if the characters are a bit OOC, I'm not used to writing them.  
R&R, please :)  
Jamie Scarlett xx**

**Disclaimer: Still not mine? Damn.**

* * *

Claire slept fitfully that night. She'd gone to bed earlier than usual to make up for the sleep she'd missed the night before: twice, she'd woken up from a particularly vivid dream involving her and Myrnin's vampire bunny slippers; they had been trying to eat her, for some reason. One of them leapt up and bit her, and refused to let go until she told it a story. Dream Claire named the slipper Plot, recited something about Plot falling in love with Plimb (the other slipper) and the Plot bunny slipper let go of her arm.

Now it was morning, and the only thing she could remember was the bunny slipper attacking her. Claire swore never to work so late again, certain that this was the cause of her erratic nightmare, and rested her head on her arms. Her crazy dream made her think of Myrnin, and Claire soon found herself once again wondering what she should do, and whether or not she had actually dreamed up considering feeling something for her boss. Hey, she had just dreamt of vampire slippers attacking her – _anything_ was possible.

Her alarm beeped at her and she shut it off, grateful for the distraction of the morning routine and the day ahead, because her thoughts? They weren't someplace _anyone_ wanted to be.

* * *

Claire's mind wasn't with her at all that day; instead of listening to her professor talk about physics, it was replaying the events of yesterday evening, and Claire found herself unable to focus on anything but that sudden rush of desire that she _still_ didn't understand.

Classes were over as quickly as they had begun, (and she wasn't sure _when_ they had begun) so Claire considered heading to Common Grounds. However, she soon realised that Eve would still be at work and, for some reason, she wanted to avoid any questions about hers and Shane's break up. Her only other choice for coffee was the University Centre, and Claire decided that overpriced, low-quality coffee was better than no coffee at all.

She placed her order to go: a mocha for herself, and of course, coffee for Myrnin; if she was going to the lab, there was no _way_ she would dare go without a drink for him. Paying the required amount, Claire took a sip of her mocha, careful to keep the other cup clutched safely in her hand: the deranged vampire not getting his coffee would be a definite issue.

The walk to Myrnin's lab seemed to take longer than normal. All the way there, Claire was switching between dreading whatever they were going to do, and looking forward to it, and by the time she had reached the Day House, neither side had won. But maybe she was looking forward to it just a little more than she was dreading it, a thought that scared her more than she wanted to admit.

Myrnin did not retrieve his coffee and retreat back to the shadows as he had the previous day; he waited for her to pass him at the door and followed her down the stairs into the lab, which was back to the state it was always in: organised chaos.

Instead, he approached her slowly, at an almost human pace, and carefully took his coffee out of her hand. He mock-bowed to her, lifted the hand he had just freed and kissed it gently, offering Claire a small smile of gratitude before returning to whatever it was he had been doing before she arrived. That was the most thanks she had ever received for getting him coffee before, and out of _her_ budget, she thought.

Claire tried to ignore the tingling of her hand where his lips had touched it – easier said than done - and attempted to break herself out of her reverie by taking a large mouthful of her mocha – though there wasn't much left, since she'd drank most of it on the way over, but she decided to have it before it went cold. Hot drinks went cold remarkably quickly in the lab for some reason… something she always wanted to investigate, but then could never find the time as Myrnin usually kept her busy.

The intake of copious amounts of caffeine worked, until she realised she'd swallowed too much; the coffee burned on its way down, scorching her throat and causing her to splutter uncontrollably for a few minutes, during which time Myrnin didn't even look up.

"Do try not to choke, Claire, it's supposed to be bad for your health." Something about his voice suggested sarcasm, but there was an undercurrent that Claire just couldn't understand.

Claire frowned. Any more of this and his mood swings were going to give her whiplash.

He was like that almost all evening, being nice to her one minute and then not caring the next. He was full of energy (perhaps that coffee had been a bad idea) and was pacing back and forth in front of Claire, who was sat on the sofa unable to do anything other than listen, talking about Fleming and his left hand rule, before then moving onto supernovas, gesturing wildly as he did so. He hadn't noticed, but his jerky movements were sending stuff flying off of the lab tables as he moved past them, creating more chaos than there already was.

Though today, Claire thought, Myrnin himself was chaos personified. It was interesting to see him like this, speaking so... passionately to her. It could also be dangerous; he had a tendency to snap after a manic phase like this.

'But you don't care about that, do you, Claire?' whispered a little voice in her head. 'Because you wouldn't love him any other way.'

Every time she had an argument with herself, that little voice always turned out to be right. This time, she was telling it that it was wrong. She did not love Myrnin; he was her boss, for starters, he was a vampire and he was over nine hundred years older than her. Conversely, Claire could not deny that Myrnin cared about her, nor could she ignore that little voice, which was getting louder and louder with every step Myrnin took towards her, insisting that Claire really did care about him, that she did love him, and she just refused to accept it.

It began to point out all the things Claire had noticed about Myrnin that she wished not to be reminded about, like how she wanted to run her hands through his dark curls, how his big brown eyes sparkled when he was talking to her about science or one of his experiments and how his enthusiasm made him seem a lot younger than his 900 plus years. There was something about him that was bright, shining, and despite how much she tried to ignore it, it was _always there! _And whenever she did succeed in ignoring it, even for a second, it seemed to grow in intensity, to replace itself in her thoughts.

As Myrnin continued to pace in front of her, she thought of all these things and noticed even more…something that she knew she _really_ didn't want to be doing.

He stopped pacing to grin at her, darted over to the bookshelves Claire had spent hours rearranging yesterday and paused, looking for a particular book.

The suddenness of the smile distracted her from her inner musings. He handed the book to her and Claire quickly realised that she had no idea what he had been talking about for the past few minutes. She snuck a look at the cover, which contained a small illustration of a tornado and nothing else. Not really helpful. She frowned, confused, and looked from the book to Myrnin in the hope of some clarification.

He sighed, apparently realising that she hadn't been paying attention to him, so he took the book back and sat down beside her.

"Do you know anything about the chaos theory?" He asked.

Claire shook her head.

"It can be anything, a series of seemingly random events that are all part of a larger equation," he explained, flipping through the book to find a specific page. When he turned it to her, it wasn't anything special, or exciting – literally just a piece of paper with a simple diagram on it – but it made sense to her analytical mind.

"Ah... so like a butterfly flaps its wings in China and creates a tornado halfway around the world?" said Claire, beginning to understand – she thought, anyway.

"Exactly!" Myrnin seemed pleased that she had grasped this concept so quickly, and he returned to his ridiculously cheerful self, the one that Claire knew could burn away at any point.

"So what am I?" Claire asked. "The butterfly or the tornado?"

He smiled at her, and a touch of melancholy seemed to appear in the movement, for a reason Claire couldn't understand. "No, you're chaos in general."

Claire laughed. "I think that applies to the both of us."

"You're not tired, I hope? This next experiment may take a few hours."

* * *

And take a few hours it did. Claire looked up at the clock - it was nearly nine o'clock already! Almost five hours had passed in no time at all.

The second time Claire looked at the time, it was just past ten. But her swift glance had not gone unnoticed.

"Is there somewhere more important you need to be?" Myrnin asked, the same edge as she had heard earlier returning to his voice.

No. "At home, in bed would be nice." She grinned as she spoke, trying to alleviate whatever was going on his mind, and she knew that speaking like this would help – at least a _bit_.

He smiled. "I may be able to grant you that request, we're almost finished."

As he spoke, he added the final reactant to the flask in front of him, clearly expecting something to happen.

When nothing did after several minutes, Myrnin was not pleased.

"What! That should have worked perfectly! Why didn't it?" Claire was sure that these, like his last question, were rhetorical but she answered him anyway.

"Maybe you didn't use enough acid at the beginning? That might have affected it." But she wasn't sure, and the spark in Myrnin's eyes made her _sure_ that she was wishing that the experiment had worked.

He looked from the flask to the reactant to Claire, and back to the flask.

"_No_." His voice had a deadly undercurrent to it and the word came out almost a snarl. "Everything was measured and combined correctly, so _why didn't it work?_" His tone calmed again and he turned to her, picking up the flask and holding it out to her. Claire wasn't sure whether he meant for her to take it or not.

"This experiment was _key_ to what I have been trying to teach you these past couple of days, Claire. It was supposed to work! This is crucial in your understanding of the sheer complexity of the workings of the universe - in part, anyway - why didn't it work?"

Claire saw his eyes flash dangerously and she knew the high was over. Now for the fall.

With a snarl of pure frustration, Myrnin hurled the flask at the wall opposite with an overly dramatic movement (even for him) that allowed Claire enough time to step out of the way. She ducked as the glass shattered from the force and was sent ricocheting across the room, the fragments narrowly missing her, the mixture inside dripping harmlessly, uselessly down the wall.

Myrnin's near silent exclamation of... _pain?_ had Claire raising from her crouch to stare at him. He was paying no attention to her; his gaze was focused on the too thick trail of blood that was seeping from a cut below his wrist.

"You're hurt." There was no surprise in her voice, just a hint of concern.

"It's nothing, Claire. It'll heal - ow!" Myrnin brushed one finger over the wound and suddenly jerked it away again. A bead of blood formed on his fingertip, leading Claire to the conclusion that there was glass in the cut.

With a sudden flash of inspiration, Claire dug through various drawers and cupboards until she found what she was searching for: the first aid kit that she had insisted he buy, in case of emergencies. Myrnin had argued with her about its necessity, but today he had no valid argument against it at all.

Placing the kit on the table, she opened it and retrieved a pair of tweezers from inside.

Claire held out one hand, palm up, and looked over at Myrnin expectantly. He looked back at her, mildly curious as to what she meant, and she sighed. Taking a few steps towards him, she slid her hand under his and held it there, her thumb resting in the middle of his palm. Both sets of hands were steady, Claire's especially so as she glanced at him, and saw nothing but trust reflected in his eyes. He trusted her enough to let her do this, to let her help him. Emboldened by this, she pulled his hand towards her and opened a small alcohol wipe, cleaning any blood from the wound. Once this was done, Claire picked up the tweezers again and set about carefully removing the shard of glass from his wrist.

He sucked in an unneeded breath as she pulled too hard, one final tug and the small fragment was out.

Claire held it up to the light. "It's weird that something so small can cause so much pain." She shook her head as she placed the glass onto the table next to them.

Myrnin cleared his throat; the cut had healed and he'd turned her palm so that she was now holding his hand. Claire knew she should let go and step away from him, but as Myrnin's free hand covered hers, she realised she didn't want to. The voice in her head was gloating silently as that same hand traced a path along her cheek.

His brown eyes were soft as they locked into hers, showing trust and just a hint of vulnerability as his hand stilled on her face, cupping her cheek. Myrnin brought their clasped hands to rest against his chest, and Claire was once again hit by a desire to kiss him. Determined to follow it through this time, she raised herself up on her toes and leaned towards him. Myrnin smiled at her, whispering his thanks in her ear, and with a wicked twitch of a smirk his lips met hers.

Claire froze for a second as she realised that _Myrnin was kissing her! Or, maybe, it was her kissing him, because she was being rather forwards, wasn't she?_

Myrnin's lips were surprisingly warm as they moved over hers – warmer than she'd have expected a vampire's lips to be, anyway. But she soon lost interest in the fact that his core temperature was evidently higher than she had previously calculated, because she was kissing her _boss_. More than just kissing a vampire, she was kissing her _vampire boss_, the one who she had been accused of loving by her now ex-boyfriend.

And the scary thing? She loved it more than any other kiss she'd ever had.

Reaching up on her tiptoes, Claire's arms snaked around Myrnin's neck of their own accord, pressing her body against his as she melted in his arms. Simultaneously, his arms wrapped around the lower part of her back, his lips pressing against her with more urgency than originally, because she wasn't pushing him away_ - she was kissing him back!_

An electrifying feeling spread through Claire, and it was almost the general cliché of the first kiss with someone: the goosebumps appeared on her arms, it felt as though she was flying through the air and falling at the same time, and she was certain that she wouldn't be standing up if Myrnin hadn't such a tight hold on her. Nothing and everything stood out at the same time, everything blurring into the next, yet things like the feeling of his hair against her fingers, the pressure of his crystal smooth lips on hers, standing out as though they were blazing a path in her mind; it was a mess of limbs and fabric as she lost all train of thought besides for kissing Myrnin.

She could feel his lips on hers, a tantalising feeling whenever they moved across hers; she was hypersensitive to his touch, and even the slightest of movements, as he deepened the kiss, as a low growl issued out of his throat, caused her brain to react in strange and erratic ways.

It wasn't her first kiss, but with Myrnin… something about him made her feel like it was. And it was definitely the best she'd had.

They were so wrapped up in each other that even Myrnin didn't hear the portal snap open, but it had.

"Well well well. This is an interesting development, very interesting..."

* * *

**Looks like this will be 3 chapters after all :)  
Don't forget to review** **x**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, here's the next chapter. Well, half a chapter. I might combine this with the other half once it's finished, maybe, so...  
Anyway, enjoy!  
****Jamie Scarlett x**

* * *

Chapter 3: Part 1

The unexpected voice caused them to jump apart. Well, Claire jumped; Myrnin managed to end up on the other side of the lab.

A wave of guilt washed over Claire, but why should she be feeling guilty? She'd broke off her relationship with Shane, so she was free to kiss who she liked, wasn't she?

"I wonder what Mr Collins will make of this news?" Oliver stepped forward, smirking at them where they stood metres apart.

Claire fought the urge to yell at him that it was none of his business, or Shane's for that matter.

What she did say, however, was "You wouldn't dare."

Oliver's smirk grew. "Oh, but I would. You know better than anyone that I would, Claire."

Myrnin, who had been watching the exchange between his assistant and the man they both despised, interrupted before Claire could dig herself into a hole.

"As scintillating as this conversation is, there must be some reason as to why you're here." That was remarkably civil for Myrnin.

Oliver scowled then. "I don't have to explain myself to you, fool. I came here because Amelie asked me to."

"And what exactly did dear Amelie want?"

"To talk to you about the machine and increasing the security measures at the border. Apparently they are not working as well as they should be; we've been receiving reports from -" Oliver stopped midsentence to stare pointedly at Claire, who frowned. Myrnin seemed to understand what he was getting at, though.

"Claire, perhaps it is best that you leave. We will continue with the experiment tomorrow."

Claire thought of arguing back but she recognised the dismissal; arguing would be pointless.

Myrnin opened up the portal for her and he sent a small smile in her direction as she walked past him to get to it.

The portal snapped shut behind her as she walked back into the Glass House. Claire dropped her bag by the kitchen door and decided to see if they'd left her anything to eat.

There was a covered pot of what Claire assumed to be chilli on the stove with a note attached.

**Figured crazy boss kept you late. Eve x**

**I want details, missy.**

Of course Eve would want details; if Claire were in her position then she certainly would. But she'd told her basically everything yesterday - what more was there to know?

Shaking her head, Claire spooned herself some still-warm chilli and started eating. After the first mouthful she realised she was ravenous seeing as she hadn't eaten anything since breakfast that morning.

She finished the bowl in record time, and after glancing at the grandfather clock on her way back into the kitchen she saw that it was almost midnight.

This being her second late night in a row, Claire was fairly sure she was going to regret it in the morning. But try as she might she just couldn't fall asleep. She'd somehow managed to avoid whiplash from Myrnin's mood swings, but there was one thing that was really bugging her.

Claire knew better than anyone (well, except Amelie) just what Myrnin was like but she hadn't expected him to have been so... blasé about saying goodbye after all that had occurred between them. The rational part of Claire's mind told her he was being like that because he didn't want to give Oliver any more fodder to chew on.

For once, the voice in her mind stayed silent; the rational part had obviously found a way to shut it up.

Sleep found her eventually.

* * *

When her alarm went off the next morning the only thing Claire wanted to do was crawl back under the covers and stay there for the rest of the day. She knew she couldn't, though, as she had responsibilities: her classes, her work and her own life.

It was just Claire and Eve at the table that morning; neither girl had any idea where Shane was and apparently Michael had an early guitar lesson.

As Eve took a bite out of her toast, Claire asked the question that had bothered her since she mentioned it.

"Eve, why did Michael lock you in your room?"

Eve sighed. "You know that club across town? The one I've been trying to score an invite to for months? Well, I finally got one, and Michael pulled the 'vamp' card on me, messed with my head and locked me in my room for the entire night."

"You made up though, right?" Claire asked hopefully. She didn't think she could stand it if Eve and Michael split.

"Course we did. And seeing as we're asking personal questions, what the hell happened between you and Shane?"

She'd been expecting that and had her answer already prepared. "Like I said yesterday - he accused me of sneaking around with Myrnin behind his back again. I don't know why he keeps thinking that - I'd never cheat on him," Yesterday's events notwithstanding... "But for some reason he just won't let it go and... and yesterday I had enough of it."

Eve scooted her chair closer and slipped a supportive arm around Claire's shoulders.

"I don't blame you for that, CB... but are you sure about what you're doing here?"

"Yeah, I am." Claire's voice was steady. "He clearly doesn't trust me anymore - why should I have to keep explaining myself to him even though I've never done anything? I shouldn't."

"Nothing I say is gonna sway you, is it?"

Claire shook her head.

"Well, you better eat up if crazy boss is gonna be keeping you all day again."

She figured Eve had a point; yesterday evening only reinforced it.

* * *

Classes that day passed way too quickly for Claire's liking, and as soon as she had left her last class of the day she got a text from Myrnin requesting her presence in the lab.

She was sort of looking forward to it today, hoping maybe for a repeat of yesterday.

One of the problems with hope, however, is that it doesn't take much to destroy it. So Claire's hopes that Myrnin would kiss her again were almost instantly shattered as she descended the steps into the lab and saw him standing there, facing away from her. He didn't say anything, didn't do anything out of the ordinary for him, didn't even acknowledge that she was there; he just stood completely engrossed with the equipment in front of him.

"Myrnin?" She called quietly. Myrnin didn't seem to hear her, so she tried again.

"Myrnin?" Louder this time, which startled him, bringing his attention from the experiment, if that's what he was doing, over to her.

"How long have you been standing there?" He asked, frowning slightly.

"Couple minutes. Didn't you hear me?"

"No, I was..." He gestured to the equipment laid out on the lab table in front of him. "...busy."

"I can see that, Myrnin, but you said you needed me here."

"Ah, yes! I think I fixed what went wrong yesterday. As per your suggestion, I increased the amount of acid used at the beginning and it should work now."

"So you'll be able to show me how the universe works, then?" She asked, actually looking forward to the results of this.

"In part, yes. If it works." He seemed a little doubtful of this fact, but there was something else missing from his tone... a certain warmth that she had gotten used to. Had Oliver threatened him with telling Amelie?

The experiment did work this time, although Claire wasn't entirely sure what it was meant to do. She thought it might have something to do with the chaos theory that Myrnin was trying to explain to her yesterday. He said that the reactant he had used was meant to be the butterfly and the acid and the resulting reaction the tornado. That part made some sort of sense in Claire's mind.

After the experiment was done, Myrnin was the one to look over at the clock.

He sighed. "Time passes much too fast."

Claire looked up at him. "Myrnin?"

He shook his head. "Never mind. Your friend Even will be worried, I'm sure."

"Eve."

"Hm?"

"Her name is just Eve."

"Of course it is. Just testing you."

That remark was met with an odd look from Claire. "And on that note, I'm going home. But, about what happened yesterday..."

"Tomorrow, Claire."

He gave her no opportunity to argue as the portal opened and she was practically pounced on by Eve, who promptly dragged her through into the living room. Claire gave her a 'what the hell?' look, and Eve shrugged.

* * *

**Well, that's all for now. Don't forget to review xx**


	4. Author's Note

I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated this story, but I have to put it on hiatus. I'll try not to abandon it completely, but I've just had so much schoolwork recently that I haven't even been able to think about writing. I might come back to it at a later date, most likely during the summer holidays when I don't have exams and stuff to deal with.

Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed.

Jamie Scarlett  
X


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